Mindy Kaling’s life plan unraveled into a new script

In her office at Los Angeles Center Studios, Mindy Kaling talks about the gap between the future she once mapped out and the life she ended up living—without the relationship and milestones she expected. What she built instead is a career that spans hit TV, fi

When Mindy Kaling walks into her office on a recent Friday morning. it doesn’t feel like an arrival so much as a routine finding its rhythm. The building—Los Angeles Center Studios in downtown LA—has a mid-century calm. a lobby still watched over by posters from Mad Men. Inside. her workspace reads like a curated timeline: baseball hats from shows she’s worked on. her old Dartmouth mailbox gifted by her alma mater. and the phrase “Never Complain. Never Explain” embroidered on mustard fabric in a bedazzled frame. a gift from her close friend and ex B.J. Novak.

Framed photos of her children sit nearby—Katherine aka Kit is 8, Spencer is 5, and Anne is 2. There’s also a framed selfie of Kaling and Novak.

“It’s really fascinating to me that, personally, nothing really happened the way that I imagined it would,” she says as she settles in, petite and polished in a black Chanel cardigan, jeans, and chunky gold jewelry. Her hair is pulled back, her lips painted a glossy plum.

Kaling’s early plan was precise. She wanted to become a comedy writer, get married at 24, have her first baby at 27, and complete her family by 32. Romance—at least the kind shown in movies—loomed large from early on. But once she landed a job writing on The Office at 24 and moved to LA. the story she expected to follow didn’t materialize.

“Literally none of that happened,” Kaling, 46, says. “All I wanted was a serious boyfriend and to follow this path that I’d set out for myself. I remember feeling like an overachiever at work and just wishing that my personal life matched my professional success — and it didn’t.”

What she did instead was push forward with a career that kept expanding. Over the next decade and a half, Kaling created and starred in 117 episodes of her comedy series The Mindy Project. She became a tour de force across film and TV, both in front of and behind the camera. Her film work includes Late Night, A Wrinkle in Time, and Ocean’s Eight. She voiced Disgust in Inside Out. She also co-created and wrote TV shows including a Four Weddings and a Funeral miniseries. Champions. Never Have I Ever. The Sex Lives of College Girls. Running Point. and her latest show. Not Suitable for Work. which premieres June 2 on Hulu.

“It is crazy for someone like me, who only wrote about the pursuit of romance for so much of my life, to be very happy and content without a partner.”

On the first day’s work in this current chapter, her schedule has the logic of a newsroom and the pace of production. She shuttles between writers’ rooms for Not Suitable for Work Season 2 and Running Point Season 3, both convening down the hall from each other in the same building.

Not Suitable for Work is. to her. the third part of a “trilogy” of shows loosely based on her own coming-of-age experiences. Never Have I Ever showcased an Indian American high schooler and her family. The Sex Lives of College Girls followed a group of friends on a New England campus. Not Suitable for Work focuses on neighbors navigating their early 20s and fledgling careers in New York.

On NSFW. she has “sprinkled elements of her young adulthood across the lead characters.” AJ (Ella Hunt) is an ambitious Bostonian with a chip on her shoulder trying to get ahead in a male-dominated industry. Kel (Nicholas Duvernay) is an aspiring actor. Davis (Will Angus) just longs to find love. Abby (Avantika) is a creative spirit dealing with more traditional parents.

Kaling’s own parents—an architect dad and an ob-gyn mom—immigrated to the U.S. shortly before she was born. And she says the time periods matter because they’re messy in a way that only experience can smooth over.

“Those time periods are just so juicy. When I was younger, I didn’t have the same compassion for 20-year-olds that I do now. I was like, They’re all my competitors,” she says. But now she adds, “I have so much love and compassion — for both the younger version of myself and all of these characters.”

There’s also a sharper edge to her perspective now—one that comes from being on the receiving end of scrutiny herself, as a public figure who consumes pop culture.

“Of course, it’s never a joy to be scrutinized, but also I truly understand it, as someone who consumes pop culture.”

Her early 20s were packed with long stretches of 18-hour days spent “scraping by.” She says she wanted health insurance. money. and to write on a hit show because she was “so insecure and panicked about my career.” An off-Broadway play she cowrote and costarred in—Matt & Ben. about a pre-fame Matt Damon and Ben Affleck—caught the attention of Greg Daniels. who was adapting The Office for an American audience and offered her a job. Over the next eight years, Kaling wrote on two dozen episodes while also playing Kelly Kapoor on-screen.

But the idea that her life would match the path she once mapped out only deepened when her personal trajectory shifted. She says it wasn’t until after she left The Office in 2012 and found success with The Mindy Project—where she starred as an ob-gyn partly inspired by her mother—that she began thinking beyond her own trajectory and considering the impact she could have on the industry.

“I didn’t come into this career in 2004 as a scared 24-year-old thinking in a community-minded way,” she says. “That has completely changed in the past 20 years.”

In her 30s. Kaling focused on creating projects through her production company. Kaling International. and casting actresses of Indian descent in prominent roles. Maitreyi Ramakrishnan. Megan Suri. Amrit Kaur. Avantika. She says she loves seeing young women—especially young Indian American women—and how different they are from her at the same age. She points to their confidence, their unafraid approach to activism and speaking their minds, and how they do their craft.

After Avantika appeared in an episode of The Sex Lives of College Girls, Kaling reached out and invited the then-17-year-old actress to lunch.

“She literally was like, ‘I just want to know what you like and what kind of movies you like to watch, and what you want to do in this industry,’” Avantika tells her.

Today, Avantika has a starring role on Not Suitable for Work as an aspiring stylist. In the telling, it’s not just casting—it’s what those characters are allowed to be.

Kaling’s projects often feature “complicated. funny. charming. brown women that are all different. that are all beautiful. and all seem to be serving more purpose than one. ” Avantika says. “That’s important for young girls to see. I don’t think just seeing themselves [on-screen] is, quite frankly, enough. We need to see our spirits represented. And I think Mindy does a really good job of doing that.”.

That commitment to boundaries shows up in how Kaling talks about her own life too. She previously shared a great deal publicly through books of highly personal essays—2011’s Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?. 2015’s Why Not Me?. and 2020’s Nothing Like I Imagined. Yet fans often treat her openness like access. Kaling says she has “very specific rules” about what she decides to share.

Her children’s faces are off-limits.

She has also set boundaries around discussing her body. Kaling rose to fame as a self-described “normal-slash-chubby woman.” In “Chubby for Life,” one of the essays in her first book, she detailed her struggle with her weight as a child and teen, and her love of attempting fad diets.

“It’s one of the biggest mysteries in my life, this fervent knowledge that I knew I had to have kids that was not based on any real love of children.”

Kaling says she is no longer “chubby for life.” Over the past few years. she has lost a significant amount of weight. and any photo she posts now comes with a flood of comments assessing her body and speculating about how she got there. She says she focuses on food moderation, running, hiking, and strength training.

She understands why people feel invested.

“It’s sometimes no fun when one of your favorite actors loses weight. You have an idea of what they were like when you grew attached to them. and it made them endear themselves to you. ” she says. “Of course. it’s never a joy to be scrutinized. but also I truly understand it. as someone who consumes pop culture.”.

Her decision, she says, has come back to health rather than vanity. She also says she realized she needs to “live at least 20 more years” for her children. “Do I wake up every day being like, ‘I look amazing and I’m so gorgeous’?. No, unsurprisingly, but I truly feel so healthy,” she continues. She adds that she might write about her weight-loss journey in the future. but for now she holds the boundary at talking about her motivation.

“When I was younger, I would want to lose weight because of vanity reasons. Now I want to lose weight or have lost weight because I want to stave off things like diabetes. I had it on both sides of my family. and trying to avoid those kinds of things will. I think. help longevity for me. and that’s my goal.”.

Another boundary is the path to parenthood—especially the relationships in her life. While her projects often lean into romantic storylines with an array of suitors. Kaling’s most prominent public relationship has been with Novak. The duo dated on and off from 2004 to 2007 while working on The Office. Kaling says he is the godfather of her three children. and the pair continue to refer to each other as “soup snakes” (an Office reference about soulmates).

“He really is in our family, and I love talking about him because my kids adore him, and he’s such a huge part of our life. But I also know that it gives people a lot of ideas,” she says. “If I was just watching it from the outside, I would have the same questions and the same reactions.”

In an interview on Armchair Expert last year, Kaling said she wasn’t dating anyone and couldn’t remember the last time she’d even had a crush. She says that’s still the case and she’s not “actively searching for that person.”

“I obviously have eyes and ears. and if there was someone that I had a crush on. of course I would react to that. but right now. there is not anyone out there. ” she continues. “It is crazy for someone like me. who only wrote about the pursuit of romance for so much of my life. to be very happy and content without a partner.”.

Kaling shared pregnancy photos and announced the births of her children on social media. But she still has not revealed who their father is or the specifics around her road to motherhood. “Perhaps, she says, she might talk about it publicly when they’re older.”

“The ramifications are so immediate for them that I just want to make sure that however I talk about it is in a way that really respects their privacy,” she says.

Becoming a single mom, she says, “felt really crazy.” She always knew she wanted children, but she says she was never “a kid person.”

“It’s one of the biggest mysteries in my life. this fervent knowledge that I knew I had to have kids that was not based on any real love of children. ” she says. “B.J., for instance, he’s always been a kid person. He has a brother who’s 13 years younger than him. and he loved his little brother and just always has been a kid person. It’s such a deep mystery why I needed to do it.”.

She says she doesn’t want her children to be Hollywood orphans who never see any parent while she shoots the show.

At times, doing it alone has “been enormously challenging,” she says. She adds that because she waited until she was older. she has “more resources. ” including “an incredible nanny.” She also says her dad and stepmom are a huge part of her kids’ lives. and it’s “been so much better than I ever thought it would be.”.

That message lands differently when other people talk about her in the parental context. When asked about Kaling, Kate Hudson—who stars on Running Point as the owner of a fictional basketball team—jumped into praise.

“She’s such a good mom,” says Hudson, who also has three children. “It’s so impressive to me when women can have so much that they’re doing and be in so many places and still be able to prioritize. always. her kids. She does that in spades. She’s a great mom, but she always shows up for everything that she’s doing. She doesn’t miss a beat.”.

The working life is just as nonstop. Since the pandemic era. Kaling has been juggling multiple shows simultaneously. writing episodes on each of the shows she’s created and executive-producing. “Even if I’m splitting my time. I want to be able to be involved enough with the show that they could assign me an episode. and I would totally understand it. ” she says.

Ike Barinholtz, Kaling’s Running Point co-creator and former The Mindy Project costar, has watched how her work approach has changed over the past decade. He describes her as having gone from “almost a workaholic type A” to having a better balance.

“We get to the writers’ room. and we always have 15 minutes of gossip and talking about shows we watched and showing funny clips of stuff online. but then we really lock in. And she’s able to. at four or five o’clock. be like. ‘OK. I’m going to make dinner for my kids.’ Watching her balance all this stuff — multiple shows and movies and kids and friendships — she never ceases to not impress me.”.

Kaling says she’s eager to act on-screen again. something she’s put on the back burner for a few years. “Sooner rather than later, I’d love to come back,” she says. “As a single parent. I don’t want my children to be Hollywood orphans who just never see any parent while I shoot the show.” She adds that. because of streaming. she could perhaps do “like. eight or 10 episodes and have a shorter order than what we used to do on The Office or The Mindy Project.” She also recalls that those shows maxed out at an exhausting 28 and 24 episodes per season. respectively.

One idea she’s intrigued by is creating and starring in a show about dating in LA in your 40s. “Whether you were never married or divorced or widowed, what does that look like?” she says. “That’s the kind of show that I would want to watch.”

She isn’t sure a Kelly-centric spinoff could work, even though she was asked about a Kelly Kapoor spin-off. “I wouldn’t say that I think she was the most three-dimensional character,” she says. “Kelly. in her mid-40s. I think she would have one of those TikToks where she was like a floating head. and she’d be criticizing red carpet photos from Scranton. Maybe divorced with a kid or two.”.

When she talks about the creative paths she admires most. she points to Jordan Peele and Greta Gerwig—creatives who started with sketch comedy for Peele and acting for Gerwig. then moved into writing and directing projects that keep what she calls a “spiritual link” to their earlier work. She says she’s particularly interested in writing and directing a horror or thriller film. adding that “there’s a lot of overlap between horror and comedy.”.

As the day ends, her life doesn’t really split into “work” and “personal.” She heads to the Not Suitable for Work writers’ room to hear a pitch for a Season 2 episode, then crisscrosses the lobby again later that afternoon to finish an outline for a Season 3 episode of Running Point.

The next morning, she plans to get up early, drop her kids off at various playdates and lessons, then go by herself to a 9:30 a.m. showing of The Devil Wears Prada 2. She says that an ensuing Instagram story of one of Novak’s scenes seemed to confirm the plan went the way she wanted.

In her own summary, the life she wanted didn’t arrive the way she pictured it. “Professionally, I always wanted to write on Saturday Night Live and be a cast member on Saturday Night Live,” she says. “Personally, I wanted to be married. Neither of those things happened.”

But when that’s pointed out—those goals could still happen—she pauses, considering the changed meaning.

“That’s interesting,” she says, stopping in careful thought. “Those things could happen, but I think I don’t necessarily need them anymore, maybe, which is a nice feeling.”

Mindy Kaling The Mindy Project Not Suitable for Work Running Point The Office single mom B.J. Novak Hulu Katherine Kit Kaling Spencer Kaling Anne Kaling